In 1986, Vietnam did away with three decades of socialism and embraced market ideologies. The Sixth Party Congress proclaimed the Doi moi policy, which set off a powerful set of interactions between economic reform and the health sector in the country. Vietnam did not receive any financial support from the IMF or World Bank, only technical assistance and policy advice during its economic reform process.

Despite the fact that, under socialism, Vietnam’s health care coverage was extensive, commune health centers were poorly funded and poorly equipped, and utilization was very low. Consumers became dissatisfied with this system, and they began to lobby for change. Partly in response, the Vietnamese government announced four new health policies under the Doi moi. First, it legalized private medicine practice, which had been hitherto forbidden; second, it privatized the production and sale of drugs; third, the government imposed user charges in public medical facilities; and finally, it created a voluntary health insurance plan. In 1992, the government also mandated, by decree, compulsory payroll-based social health insurance for all government employees, and for workers of state and private enterprises with ten workers or more. This decree also made provision for a system of voluntary insurance for the majority of workers in small businesses and agriculture. These new policies led to an explosive growth of private medicine and pharmaceutical market. Vietnam’s post-reform health system is complex. On the surface, the country appears to have a two-tier private sector. The first tier consists of a handful of well-established private hospitals located in the big cities, and a second tier is made up of private providers in the urban and rural areas. These private clinics often serve as ambulatory health...

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...Literature; so much depends upon it
Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is more important than just a historical or cultural writing. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn from books and literature; we enjoy the triumphs and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow through our literary journey with books. In conclusion, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author's message. However we interpret literature, there is still an artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is both universal and individual, and in many ways it affects us, for the better.
When some people think of the word “Literature” they think of books like, Walden, Old man and the Sea, Tom Sawyer, Great Expectations, or Moby Dick. These are what some call “the classics.” While these few books are indeed literature do we subconsciously judge other books based on the styling’s of these few? People believe that the true meaning of “Literature,” is a literary work in which the readers mind is opened to new concepts and ideals.
For a writing to be called “Literature” it doesn’t have to be considered a “Classic” nor does it...

...Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences come together to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of the contemporary environmental situation. Ecocriticism was officially heralded by the publication of two seminal works,[citation needed] both published in the mid-1990s: The Ecocriticism Reader, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, and The Environmental Imagination, by Lawrence Buell.
In the United States, ecocriticism is often associated with the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE),[citation needed] which hosts biennial meetings for scholars who deal with environmental matters in literature. ASLE publishes a journal—Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE)—in which current American scholarship can be found.
Ecocriticism is an intentionally broad approach that is known by a number of other designations, including "green (cultural) studies", "ecopoetics", and "environmental literary criticism".
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Evolution of ecocriticism in literary studies
* 2 Definition
* 3 See also
* 4 Sources
* 5 References
* 6 External links
-------------------------------------------------
Evolution of ecocriticism in literary studies[edit]
Ecocritics investigate such things as the underlying ecological values, what, precisely,...

...LiteratureLiterature (from Latin litteraetantri (plural); letter) is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources (although, under circumstances unpublished sources can be exempt). Literally translated, the word literature means "acquaintance with letters" (as in the "arts and letters"). The two major classification of literature are poetry and prose.
"Literature" is sometimes differentiated from popular and ephemeral classes of writing. Terms such as "literary fiction" and "literary merit" are used to distinguish individual works as art-literature rather than vernacular writing, and some critics exclude works from being "literary", for example, on grounds of weak or faulty style, use of slang, poor characterization and shallow or contrived construction. Others exclude all genres such as romance, crime and mystery, science fiction, horror and fantasy. Pop lyrics, which are not technically a written medium at all, have also been drawn into this controversy.
POETRY
A poem is a composition written in verse (although verse has been equally used for epic and dramatic fiction). Poems rely heavily on imagery, precise word choice, and metaphor; they may take the form of measures consisting of patterns of stresses (metric feet) or of patterns of different-length syllables (as in classical prosody); and they may or may not utilize rhyme. Relaxation Through Poetry is a tool...

...What is Literature?
Language Department
IPGK Pendidikan Teknik
Based on your experience learning
literature, what is literature? What
are the characteristics of literature?
Do you need to learn literature?
• Traditionally,
literature is
“imaginative”
writing.
• However, the
distinction between
“real” and “fake” or
“fact” and “fiction”
isn’t always a good
distinction; many
classical works
were non-fiction.
Literature is Subjective
• Since the 1980’s, the “literary canon”
of works – a group of works “agreed
upon” to be “the best” by well-known
scholars and critics, has been
disputed.
Why do you think the “canon” was
disputed?
• The “Canon” excluded most works that were
not by white, European males.
• Works of literature by women, homosexuals,
and works by individuals of varied races,
classes and ethnicities were marginalised.
How did this happen?
• There are many ways of “writing” – but
those in power recognised only one, formal
way of “writing”, and this was given the
higher value.
• Thus, the literary “canon” is a construct; it
was fashioned by particular people for
particular reasons at a particular time.
• There is no literary work or tradition
that has value in and of itself …
• ….even Shakespeare!
• In his era, Shakespeare was regarded as a
hack!
• Time and circumstance has...

...﻿Taim Awad
Ms. Mocarski
A.P. British Literature
09/07/2014
Art, Literature, and the Carriers of Civilization.
In 1848, Thomas de Quincey wrote an essay titled “The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power.” De Quincey was a 19th century British author. He is well known for “Confessions of an English Opium Eater.” In his essay, he divides literature – books to be precise, into two separate roles: the literature of knowledge which conveys information that has a clear use (such as a cookbook), and literature of power which is more abstract, and enriches the reader in more intangible ways. In its simplest form, literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. However, after exploring the ideas and works of authors such as Thomas de Quincey, Vladimir Nabokov, and Francine Prose, I have come to a conclusion that literature is definitely more than that. It must be. Reading their great works gives us a vivid image of what literature, writing, and reading is. The works of these three authors, when explored chronologically, poses a series of questions: What IS literature? What makes a great reader? How can I apply this to my writings? Literature, with all its intangibilities, opens a gateway to the genius of reading and writing.
In essence, literature is a domain of many...

...﻿
Course Activity Semester A
Discussing Literature and Government
This activity will help you meet these educational goals:
Common Core State Standards—You will initiate and participate effectively in a collaborative discussion (SL.1).
Introduction
In this course activity, you will participate in a peer discussion about how literary or other artistic pursuits and governmental, religious, political, or social structures affect one another. Afterward, you will summarize the discussion and how it helped shape your thinking about your original ideas.
__________________________________________________________________________
Directions and Analysis
Task: Peer Discussion and Summary
Your Discussion Process
For this task, you’ll need to work as part of a pair who can meet for a face-to-face discussion. Your teacher will identify a process for this task that fits your learning situation. For instance, if you’re working primarily on your own in this course with no on-site classmates (self-paced course) the process will be a little different than if you are learning with one or more other students in the same building and on the same schedule (group-paced course). Discussions in those two cases are outlined below.
Group-paced course
The teacher organizes pairs or enables students to self-organize.
In the discussion session, students take turns presenting their thesis and then discussing each thesis.
Students alternate playing the role of the presenter.
Plan to...

...Caribbean Literature
INTRODUCTION
The evolution of Caribbean Literature started centuries before the Europeans graced these shores and continues to develop today. Quite noticeably, it developed in a manner which transcended all language barriers and cultures. Today the languages of the Caribbean are rooted in that of the colonial powers - France, Britain, Spain and Holland - whose historical encounters are quite evident throughout the region. The cosmopolitan nature of the region's language and cultural diversity develop from the mixture of European languages with Native American languages (mainly the Caribs and Arawaks) in the formation of creoles and local patois (hybrid languages) and those of Africans brought to the Caribbean as slaves, not withstanding the contributions of Asians mainly from India and China, and Middle Easterners.
The fabric of Caribbean Literature is woven with the historical issues of enslavement and forced migration, the related themes of home and exile, and colonialism and decolonization. The social and cultural themes of tradition, landscape, culture and community are also encompassed by Caribbean Literature. It also addresses such universal questions as identity, sexuality, family life, pain, joy, and the uses of the imagination.
It is virtually impossible to keep Caribbean Literature only within the confines of writings produced within the Caribbean Islands....

...﻿African literature is highly diversified, even though it shows some similarities. In fact, the common denominator of the cultures of the African continent is undoubtedly the oral tradition. Writing on black Africa started in the middle Ages with the introduction of the Arabic language and later, in the nineteenth century with introduction of the Latin alphabet. Since 1934, with the birth of the "Negritude," African authors began to write in French or in English. Since the 1960’s quantitative and qualitative changes could be observed in the field of publication in both Francophone and Anglophone states.
The main objective of the present work is to give an overview of the origin and the role of griots in the African society, the different components of the oral tradition, and the major trends in the development of African literature. The study of the Negritude movement encompasses the historical context, the definition of the concept and its principal authors, ideological contradictions, the left wing of the Negritude, and the "Theory of the African Personality" in Anglophone countries. The monograph provides as well current trends in the African literature after 1960 and the response of a panel of African authors.
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Traditional...